This banana cake is a sweet and moist cake, topped with a tangy sweet cream cheese frosting. Its full of fresh ripe bananas and cinnamon, made in a 9×13 pan, and so easy and delicious.
This banana cake is a new favorite of mine. Its moist and deliciously sweet, without being too sweet. The sweet cake is perfect paired with the tangy and sweet cream cheese frosting. The cake is a little dense, but not too heavy. Rich, but so good you’ll be going back for bite after bite.
The cake is full of 1 and a half cups mashed ripe bananas, which was 3 large bananas for me. Make sure you’re bananas are nice and ripe, spotty all over, so that they add just the right amount of sweetness and banana flavor to the cake.
This cake has so many delicious ingredients in it that help make it so nice and moist – it has a little more brown sugar than white sugar, because I love the flavor of brown sugar, but it also makes such a nice crumb. Then the buttermilk gives it just the right amount of moisture. I don’t usually keep buttermilk on hand, so I just make my own “sour milk” with some whole milk and a little lemon juice or vinegar. Add about 1 tsp to your 1/2 cup of milk and let it sit for a minute, then its ready to go into your cake batter.
The cake is topped with an amazing cream cheese frosting. Its easy to make, and so smooth and silky on top of the moist cake.
The cake is delicious is good with walnuts added in, or without. Or you can sprinkle a few nuts on top of the frosting to give the cake just a little texture as you bite into it, and I love the way the sprinkle of nuts looks too. Its good with or without though, so honestly this time, I did half and half on top (with none in the cake itself) because this way you can satisfy nut lovers and nut haters. 😉
Easy Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3 large bananas smashed with a fork or potato masher)
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (or make your own with 1 tsp lemon juice and 1/2 cup milk)
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup butter (room temperature, 1 stick)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat together your brown sugar, white sugar, butter, and mashed bananas until well combined.
- Add in the eggs, and stir until just smooth.
- Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Alternate adding half the dry ingredients, then half the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture, and lastly the buttermilk. Mixing after each until just combined.
- Pour batter into a 9×13 pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Spread evenly.
- Bake for 33-38 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and place cake pan on a wire rack to cool completely. Place in the fridge after 30 minutes to speed it up, if desired.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
- Add in the butter and continue mixing it till smooth and blended.
- Add in the vanilla and powdered sugar and continue beating until the frosting is completely smooth.
- Spread frosting over the top of the cooled cake.
- Refrigerate cake for 30 minutes to 1 hour to make cutting and serving easier.
- Cover leftover cake and store in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Don’t forget, if you try this recipe, please let us know! Share a photo on instagram with the hashtag #lmldfood, so we can see it. I love seeing what you guys make!
Polly says
I made this today. It’s beautiful! Haven’t cut it yet, but I know it will be awesome. I did a brown butter frosting instead of cream cheese. Can’t wait to try it 😊 Wish I could post a pic.
Aimee says
I hope you love it!! A brown butter frosting sounds divine, I recently tried a brown butter cream cheese frosting on cinnamon rolls 🤤 I’d love it if you’d tag me on Instagram or email me the picture lmldfood@gmail.com
Tammy Manshanden says
Big question!! With this recipe and your Chocolate Cake one, How would you incorporate the two and make a Choc Banana Cake? Last recipe i found was good but looking for something WITHOUT oil
Aimee says
I’m not sure. That sounds amazing though! My friend Amber has a chocolate banana cake recipe that is a lighter cake (no oil or butter) and looks yummy, maybe you could try that! https://www.dessertnowdinnerlater.com/double-chocolate-banana-cake/
Rosy says
Just made this cake and it came out so moist and tender I couldnt believe it. Banana cakes can come out rubbery and cakes made with butter are typically dense and crisp around the edges. This came out perfect and was a breeze to make. I did really mix with well with the electric mixer. Thank you so much. I usually use encyclopedia of cooking from the culinary institue but this recipe is much better. I think this could be made in layers. Im going to try that next time. Oh I substituted watered down plain greek yogurt for buttermilk. It rose very nicely.
Aimee says
Thank you Rosy! You made my day <3
Peter says
Instructions were good. I never make frosting but this came out fine. However, I added the sugar to the frosting half a cup at a time and I decided I didn’t want it any sweeter after 1.5 cups. In the cake batter, I substituted plain yogurt for the buttermilk (it was homemade yogurt, unstrained, so thinner than commercial yogurt; I’ve made this substitution in other recipes and have been pleased with results) and added a cup of chopped walnuts to the batter. It looks promising. I don’t cut the cake until tomorrow, but I’m calling it a success tonight.
Natalie Collings says
It doesnt say how many eggs to add and I’m in the middle of making this!
Aimee says
Shoot! Sorry, I added 4!
Blogtastic Food says
Looks amazing! Love this (: